I have been very tempted to try a basil flavored cupcake. I made basil simple syrup a couple of weekends ago and picked up a selection of fruits to taste it with. My favorite match was most definitely basil and raspberry.

I finally got around to the cupcakes this weekend. I made a basic vanilla cupcakes, light and fresh raspberry mousse frosting, basil cream, and mint cream. I decided it would be easy enough to prepare fillings with basil and mint then see what combination I preferred.

The cupcakes turned out great, really fruity and fresh. I suggest serving them with some extra fruit… I wanted a raspberry with every bite. As it turns out, I prefer the mint. The taste was still herby like the basil, but not as distinct or distracting. It’s not that I didn’t like the basil. I did. I just feel like I would need to do something more, like find a third flavor to balance the two.

On a final note, I am looking forward to making a basil martini tonight with the left over syrup and some high quality vodka. Should be tasty…

1. Beat butter on high until soft, about 30 seconds.
2. Add sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
3. Add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds between each.
4. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl.
5. Measure out milk and vanilla together.
6. Add about a fourth of the flour to the butter/sugar mixture and beat to combine.
7. Add about one third the milk/vanilla mixture and beat until combined.
8. Repeat above, alternating flour and milk and ending with the flour mixture.
9. Scoop into cupcake papers about half to three-quarters full (depending on whether you want flat or domed cupcakes).
10. Bake for 20-22 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.

baked cupcakes

Basil or Mint Cream

1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
5 ounces basil or mint
1 cup heavy cream

1. Bring sugar and water to a boil, stir until sugar dissolves.
2. Chop basil or mint and add to the mixture.
3. Boil for 3 minutes.
4. Cool to room temperature.
5. Beat heavy cream on high until stiff peaks form add the five to six tablespoons of syrup to taste and beat until combined.

1. Combine raspberries and sugar in a saucepan and cook over medium heat.
2. Stir mixture until it is basically a liquid.
3. Stir in gelatin, continue to cook until dissolved.
4. Remove from heat and transfer to a medium sized bowl. Refrigerate overnight.
5. Beat heavy cream on high until stiff peaks form. Add the three tablespoons of sugar and beat until combined.
6. Mix about a third of the whipped cream into raspberry mixture until well combined.
7. Fold in remaining whipped cream.

Assemble
1. Using a small knife, cut off the top of the cupcake in the shape of a cone. Flip the top over and cut off the cone.
2. Fill the cavity with a teaspoon of basil or mint cream.
3. Replace the top of the cone.
4. Pipe on the raspberry mousse and decorate with fresh herb and/or raspberries.

Hey, Alicat, the basil cocktail was pretty good. Somewhat odd at first, but it grew on me. I gave the boston a squeeze and he kind of growled a little, he doesn’t like to be bothered during nap time…

I am definitely going to try adding lime in this recipe the next time I make it. Great suggestion, whoever you are!

Jordyn, not sure if my cups are size “48”, they are 3.25 ounces is all I know. Bake times are the same for the souffle cups and regular cupcakes, as I scoop the same amount of batter in them regardless (I use a 2 ounce scoop).

Happy one year anniversary! I see you have been blogging your baking adventures for 12 whole months. The rasberry mousse looks lovely. I bought a cookbook last week called, “Paris Sweets”, which includes a recipe for Chocolate Thyme cake. I guess that using herbs traditionally included in savory foods to season sweets is a very European approach.

I made these last night except that I used anise instead of basil or mint. I used the same amount of liquid and sugar for the syrup, but I replaced the basil/mint with 2 star anise seed pods. Loved it! I think the anise flavor was a little too subtle for this combination, though, because I could barely taste the anise with the raspberry mousse, which was also GREAT! I still liked the anise cream a lot, though, so I might try something else with that. Thanks for the fantastic inspiration!

I made these cupcakes yesterday and while i was generally pleased with the cupcake itself and the mint cream, I had a lot of trouble with the raspberry mousse… unsurprisingly, when I mixed the gelatin in and refrigerated it it became hard and gelatinous which made for a lot of trouble when mixing it with the whipped cream… logic would dictate that it would be hard and gelatinous, but from the pictures it seems a lot smoother, i ended up with a few chunks in my frosting (sort of gross). I imagine there’s something I could have done differently, like stuck it in a blender, if I wanted to make sure it was smooth, but I was trying to follow the instructions. Is there something I did wrong?

Hi, Blair. Baking isn’t easy, or straightforward – that’s for sure. There are so many variables that can impact the outcome. The best tips I (or anyone) can give is on how to recover from things that could go wrong. There are lots of things one can do, many I learned from experimenting myself, through classes, or even from food TV. In this case, if I noticed that the mixture was too stiff, I would warm it slightly over a water bath before folding in the whip cream.

Thanks, I appreciate the advice. Makes sense to try to warm it up a little – should have thought of that. I was just so intent on following the recipe and it made sense to me that the raspberry mixture turned gelatinous – what, if not that, does gelatin do? so I assumed I was on the right track…

First let me say, when I first stumbled upon this lovely-ness of a site I was flabbergasted. I had no idea a world of food blogs, correction, cupcake blogs even existed. I was up until 1 am exploring your beautiful site. I have made quite a few of your recipes and enjoyed every single one. You’ve been a true inspiration. I’ve been baking with my grandmother since age five, and as busy as life has gotten I’d forgotten my passion for the art. So thank you, for awakening it. I did have a question, I plan to make these cupcakes next and I wanted to know if I needed to refrigerate these because of the mousse frosting? I know you get compliments on almost a daily basis, but truly, thank you. Baking makes life just that much more beautiful.

Blair and Razzie, I had the same result as both of you did with the rasberries jelling too much. I just put the container over a double boiler until it became workable again, let it cool and folded into the whippped cream and it went on the cupcakes perfectly.
I refrigerated mine until serving time because of the cream filling and not wanting the mousse to get soft. BTW, all the guests raved on the mint and basil flavors!!

I made these cupcakes today and have a question which I know you may not be able to answer, but here goes:
I reduced the amount of sugar by about 2 ounces and divided it up into white, light brown and brown sugar (which I typically do in most recipes). I used two eggs which might best be described as jumbo (they are 85g each). I used soy milk for the regular milk (it’s worked in other recipes of yours).
My cupcakes rose so much that some of them started literally erupting over the side of the cup. I left them to cook hoping that they would eventually stop which sort of happened. Eventually I checked them with a toothpick and they all seemed cooked but they deflated quite a bit afterwards and some of them are somewhat lopsided in how they rose (they’re perfectly acceptable but I wondered if I should just have left them to cook longer in spite of the toothpicks coming out clean). Any ideas? Thanks so much in case you reply. (They taste fabulous btw, so that’s not an issue at all).

I made these this weekend, as mini vanilla cupcakes with the raspberry mousse frosting. not quite as exciting without the filling but they were a huge success. the frosting was delicious! as a bonus, after lurking and reading many many recipes on this site i finally baked cupcakes that didn’t overflow! thanks for the great recipe – i love your ideas.

Awesome website, I’m going to be addicted! I am going to try to make these but do you have any pics of how you did the filling/chopping off the top and making the cone? I want to make sure I am doing it right. Also, can I have your blessing to repost your recipe, with a link back to you, on my blog?

This sounds so good, I wish I had the ingredients right now so I could make them. Hopefully tomorrow! do you think that the three year old I watch would like these? I’ll test them on her and see if she likes them, (i’m not the best baker in the world) only the future me knows what tomorrow holds;)

This sounds really lovely. I’ve been hunting for a cupcake recipe that didn’t use buttercream and I NEVER would have thought of a raspberry mousse cream. It sounds delightful, I cant wait to try it! Thanks!!

First off, I love this site! I’ve been slowly trying to make some of these cupcakes (the thyme, blueberry, and peach cupcake was phenomenal!). I tried to make this one with chocolate cake, but I had some trouble with the mint cream. First, I don’t know how to tell how much 5 oz of fresh mint is. Second, I didn’t know how fine to chop the mint. The filling tasted good, but the texture was of chunky mushy plant. How do I fix the filling I’d really love to give these another go! Thanks!